S HIO 



PS 1470 
.C6 
1893 
Copy 1 



THE PROPHECY 



OTHER POEMS. 



By W. a. CROFFUT, Ph. D., 

AUTHOR OF "CONNECTICUT IN THE WAR," "A HELPING HAND," "a MID- 
SUMMER LARK " (poems), " THE VANDERBILTS AND THE STORY OF 
THEIR FORTUNE," " DESERET " (AN OPERA), " THE BOURBON 
BALLADS," AND " FOLKS NEXT DOOR." 






L. & W. Bill, Publishers, 
New York, 1893. 



P.5 14-70 



The Prophecy 

What the Voice Saiil 

The Thousand Islands 

The Saguenay 

The Bay of Fimdy's Tides 

A Vision 

ADream of Death 

Going to Thanksgiving 

Guibord at the Gate 

Echoes on the Side Wall 

Plea for Captain Mary ••• 

Chicago— Resurgam, 1872 

The Lightning Train ■ 

Two Breakfast Dishes 

In an Album 

Sonnets 

U. S. Grant 

John C. Fremont 

Lucius Quintus Oincinnatus Lamar 

ThurlowWeed 

Juarez the Deliverer. 

Samtiel Bowles 

Thomas Simms 

Only Yesterday 

The Haunted Lake at Cooperstovra 

Love on Skates , 

Mount Hope, Narragansett Bay.. 

The Story of Cape Despair.. 

The Fort at St. John 

Brigham Young, Some Advice 

Old Hickory Has His Say 

The Legend of Pelot's Bay, Lake Champlain 

ADream of Parnassus 

The Friar of Campobello 

The Fugitives of the Penobscot 

On Retiring From Olnce 

Thanksgiving— A Picture 

Trtithful Biddy 

" Said a Great Congregational Preacher".... 

" If Lazarus wus Livin' Now " 

Guy Fawkes— Wilkes Booth— Thomassen ... 

Mr, Forepaugh's Giraffe 

Compensation 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 
1 



IV 



CONTENTS. 



In 1864 

Perhaps 

Come, Mardi Gras ! 

George B, McClellan 

Lover's Leap 

Christmas Song 

The New Crusade...... 

To a Lizard in Amber 

Christmas in the Balkan Mountains, 1878 . 

Brother Jonathan to Dom Pedro 

A Salt Sea Specter 

Sensitiveness 

"Why is a ? » 

Simon Soggs's Complaint 

They Think 

Greeting to Prince Fushimi 

A Warning 

Cold- Weather Reflections 

At the Capitol— March 5, 1887 

The Day We Celebrate 

May Day 

The Contrasts of 1995 

Open Letter to the Mormon Apostle, Snow. 

The Shad and the Strawberry 

Thelsere 

Off Veracruz (a ballade) 

The King of the Cannibal Islands 

Senate, Dear Senate, Go Home! 



THE PROPHECY — 1492. 

Read at the Opening of the World's Columbian Exposition 
at Chicago, Illinois, May i, 1893. 
Sadly Columbus watched the nascent moon 
Drown in the Gloomy Ocean's western deeps. 

Strange birds that day had fluttered in the sails, 

And strange flowers floated round the wandering keel, 

And yet no land. And now, when thro the dark 

The Santa Maria leaped before the gale, 

And angry billows tossed the caravels, 

As to destruction, Gomez Rascon came 

With Captain Pinzon thro the frenzied seas. 

And to the Admiral brought a parchment scroll, 

Saying. "Good Master: Read this writing here; 

An earnest prayer it is from all the fleet. 

The crew would fain turn back in utter fear. 

No longer to the Pole the compass points. 

The sailor's star reels dancing down the sky. 

You saw but yestereve an albatross 

Drop dead on deck beneath the flying scud. 

The Devil's wind blows madly from the east 

Into the land of Nowhere, and the sea 

Keeps sucking us adown the maelstrom's maw. 

Francisco says the edge of earth is near, 

And off to Erebus we slide unhelmed. 



THE PROPHECY AND OTHER POEMS. 

Last Sunday night Diego saw a witch 

Dragging the Nina by her forechains west 

And wildly dancing on a dolphin's back; 

And, as she danced, the brightest star in heaven 

Slipped from its leash and sprang into the sea, 

Like Lucifer, and left a trail of blood. 

O, Master, hear me ! — turn again to Spain, 

Obedient to the omens, or, perchance. 

The terror-stricken crew, to escape their doom. 

May mutiny and — " 

"Gomez Rascon, peace!" 
Exclaimed the Admiral, "thou hast said enough ' 
Now, prithee, leave me. I would be alone." 



Then eagerly Columbus sought a sign, 

In sea and sky and in his lonely heart, 

But found, instead of presages of hope, 

The black and ominous portents of despair. 

The wild wind roared around him, and he heard 

Shrill voices shriek " Return ! — return ! — return ! " 

He thought of Genoa and dreams of youth, 

His father's warning and his mother's prayers, 

Confiding Beatrix, her prattling babe, 

The life and mirth and warmth of old Castile, 

And tempting comfort of the peaceful land, 

And sad winds moaned "return ! — return ! — return ! 



As thus he mused, he paced the after deck 
And gazed upon the luminous waves astern. 
Strange life was in the phosphorescent foam, 
And thro the goblin glow there came and went, 
Like elfin shadows on an opal sea. 
Prophetic pictures of the land he sought. 



THE PROPHECY. i 

He saw the end of his victorious quest. 
He saw, ablaze on Isabella's breast, 
The gorgeous Antillean jewels rest — 
The Islands of the West ! 

He saw invading Plenty dispossess 
Old Poverty, the land with bounty bless, 
And thro the wailing caverns of Distress 
Walk star-eyed Happiness ! 

He saw the Bourbon and Braganza prone, 
For ancient error tardy to atone, 
Giving the plundered people back their own 
And flying from the throne. 

He saw an empire radiant as the day, 
Harnessed to law but under Freedom's sway, 
Proudly arise, resplendent in array, 
To shov,' the world the way. 

He saw celestial Peace in mortal guise, 
And, filled with hope and thrilled with high emprise. 
Lifting its tranquil forehead to the skies, 
A vast republic rise. 

He saw, beyond the hills of golden corn, 
Beyond the curve of Autumn's opulent horn, 
Ceres and Flora laughingly adorn 
The bosom of the morn. 

He saw a cloth of gold across the gloom. 
An arabesque from Evolution's loom, 
And from the barren prairie's driven spume 
Imperial cities bloom. 



THE PROPHECY AND OTHER POEMS. 

He saw an iron dragon dashing forth 
On pathways East, and West, and South and North, 
Its bonds uniting in beneficent girth 
Remotest ends of earth. 

He saw the lightnings run an elfin race, 
Where trade and love and pleasure interlace, 
And severed friends in Ariel's embrace 
Communing face to face. 

He saw Relief thro deadly dungeons grope ; 
Foes turn to brothers, black despair to hope, 
And cannon rust along the grass-grown slope, 
And rot the gallows rope. 

He saw the babes on Labor's cottage floor. 
The bright walls hung with luxury more and more, 
And Comfort, radiant with abounding store. 
Wave welcome at the door. 

He saw the myriad spindles flutter round ; 
The myriad mill-wheels shake the solid ground ; 
The myriad homes where jocund joy is found, 
And Love is throned and crowned. -• 

He saw exalted Ignorance under ban, 
Though panoplied in force since time began, 
And Science, consecrated, lead the van, 
The Providence of man. 

The pictures came and paled and passed away. 
And then the Admiral turned as from a trance, 
His lion face aglow, his luminous eyes 
Lit with mysterious fire from hidden suns : 
" Now, Martin, to thy waiting helm again ! 
Haste to the Pinta ! Fill her sagging sails. 



THE PROPHECY. I 

For on my soul hath dawned a wondrous sight. 

IvO ! — thro this segment of the watery world 

Uprose a hemisphere of glorious life ! — 

A realm of golden grain and fragrant fruits, 

And men and women wise and masterful, 

Who dwelt at peace in rural cottages 

And splendid cities bursting into bloom — 

Great lotus blossoms on a flowery sea. 

And happiness was there, and bright-winged Hope — 

High Aspiration, soaring to the stars ! 

And then methought, O, Martin, through the storm 

A million faces turned on me and smiled. 

Now go we forward — forward ! — fear avaunt ! 

I will abate no atom of my dream, 

Though all the devils of the underworld 

Hiss in the sails and grapple to the keel ! 

Haste to the Pinta ! Westward keep her prow, 

For I have had a vision full of light ! 

Keep her prow westward in the sunset's wake 

From this hour hence and let no man look back ! " 



Then from the Pinta's foretop fell a cry — 

A trumpet-song— " Light-ho ! I/ight-ho ! lyight-ho !" 



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